Trainin' them right!?!

Last Saturday, As I was trying to clean up the kitchen when Kyle came and asked if he could help me which in translation meant he wanted to play in the water.  Well I called his bluff and told him that he could help me wash dishes!  I was very surprised that Evan wanted to help too!  The boys took there job very seriously and I think the cups were washed 10 times each! :-)

However I did get them to stop long enough to smile for a picture.  Aren't they the cutest little dishwashers EVER?!?! :-)

Happ Birthday Daddy!

Tonight for Ben's birthday we went to his favorite steak restaurant...Text Roadhouse! :-)  Our supper was delicious and then we took the boys down to ride the Christmas train.  In Evan's opinion, the night could not have gotten any better!  He LOVED the train ride and even more that he got to ride by himself with Kyle.  They were too cute!

After the train, of course we had to go into Bass Pro.  Kyle and Ben played all the shooting games and Evan and I checked out the reindeer. :-)

Then once we got home, we sang Happy Birthday and got to dig into the giant cupcake cake we got for Ben's birthday.  I have to say it was one of the best cakes we have gotten in a while!

Needless to say, Evan was VERY excited that we were having CAKE!! :-)

A visit with Santa

On Sunday, we met Ga Ga, MeMe and Aunt Ree in Statesboro to take the boys to see Santa.  Every year since Kyle has been a baby we have always gone to the Statesboro Mall to visit with Santa Claus.  They have a really neat set up and Santa is always so friendly and takes up a lot of time with the kids.
This year was no different! Both boys were really excited to see Santa and Evan immediately jumped up in his lap.  Evan told Santa he wanted nuggets for Christmas and Kyle said he wanted an remote control shark (REALLY?!?  What in the world is this?!?!)

See, I just love the set up they have!  It is SO fun!

In addition to the pictures that we bought, MeMe took some great pictures with my little camera.  I think they all turned out so good! (Thank you MeMe!)

As we were going into the mall we also got to see DeDe and Marti!  The boys were so excited and I think they had a great day all the way around! :-)

My big boy!

Today, my baby boy took another step toward growing up.  We unpacked the diaper bag and packed his new super-cool Lightening McQueen bookbag for school today!  He was SO excited to take take a book bag like his brother and all the big kids.  I have to admit he looks cute with the book bag on his back but I am not so sure I was ready to see him looking all "growny" like this. :-)    

Football Game!

Last Friday night Ben went in late to work so we could take the boys to their first Calvary football game.  It was Homecoming so what better game to take the boys too.  I think this picture is too cute, we told the boys to look tough after we put the boys 'eye blacks' on but Evan was so excited that he could barely stop smiling. :-)

Of course I wanted Ben and I to take pictures with the boys before we left to remember the evening.

 

Once we got to the game the boys did really well and had a ball! 

Kyle spent a lot of time with his friends playing so Ben was able to tell Evan all about the game of football.  I think some of it was over the head of a 2 year old but it was cute. :-)

This was one of the best family nights I can remember us having in a while.  I can't wait for us to go again!

Happy Halloween! (a couple of weeks late...)

Where to begin?!?  Gosh...I can't believe Halloween has already come and gone!  This year we took the boys to two different Fall/Halloween events and they had a BLAST!  First we went to the Halloween Hike at Oatland Island with Dana and Tim and Stephen and Matthew.  All of the boys had SO much fun and it was nice for the boys to trick-r-treat with friends. I think this is best picture of all four boys!

All through the nature trail they had different characters and animals to give out candy.  This was an eagle and a patriotic person.  Sometime the characters would tell little stories about themselves (ex. the Eagle eats mice, etc...) It was a lot of fun for the boys and us grown ups too!

The following weekend we took the boys to Calvary's Trunk-R-Treat.  This time Evan wanted to wear the Winnie the Pooh costume from when Kyle was little.  I think he looks absolutely adorable in it!  I really like this picture of the three of us.  Kyle says he is smiling under his mask. :-)

Of course Kyle had to go down the big inflatable slide!

Then we started going around the track trick-r-treating.  All of the vehicles were dressed up. This one was Mater...

The boys had so much fun going around and visiting all of the decorated cars getting candy.  At the end of the night both were dragging there bags of candy they were so heavy.

After the boys trick-r-treated we played a couple of more games.  Kyle and Evan really liked the milk the cow game.  I love how Evan is all leaned back on the stool after milking the cow.

Then the boys played the football game.  Kyle stood back like a big boy and threw the football.  When it was Evan's turn he ran all the way up to the football stand to throw the ball in.  It was too cute!

 

After letting the boys go to two different Halloween trick-r-treating events, we decided that for Halloween we would stay home and let our boys give out candy.  We felt they needed to be on the other side and learn the "its better to give than receive" lesson.  I have to say the boys did excellent in giving the candy away!  I made up two candy bowls (one for each).  Kyle did great in handing out his candy.  Evan, however, missed the whole two piece of candy concept.  Evan would give two handfuls of suckers.  It really was okay and as Ben said...the Trick-R-Treaters loved us and we definitely wouldn't get our house egged for lack of candy as long as Evan was around! :-)

Decorating Pumpkins



I have a couple of blog posts started from our weekend but I wanted to share this tonight....

Over the weekend, we got the boys two pumpkins to carve next week on Halloween but until them I got Jack-o-Lantern stickers for the boys to decorate them with.  It took of all of about 2 minutes for the boys to stick on these stickers but at least they had fun!

 

Kyle decorated his in the traditional style....

 

Evan decided that after Mommy helped with the eyes he had a better place for the mouth and hat.  Oh well, I think it is adorable! 

 

 Happy Halloween!!!



Fall Festival time!

It is that time of year again that I absolutely love - It's fall festival time!  I always try to plan our weekends so we are attending something every weekend and the boys love it.  This past weekend we went to the Bamboo Gardens Fall Festival.  Evan is finally big enough this year to really enjoy most of everything there.  First stop for the boys was the pony rides.  I had to hold Evan  and you can see Kyle (in the orange shirt behind us) was a big boy and got to ride by himself!

Look at Evan's shirt...isn't it the cutest thing EVER?!?  He made it in Ms. Ashley's class.  The little ghost is his foot print.  He is VERY proud of his shirt and walks around pointing to it saying "I do it!" :-)

Next the boys rode the tractor train.  Evan wanted to sit all by himself in the train car so Kyle sat behind him to make sure he didn't jump up.  Fortunately he did great but doesn't he look so little?!?

After we did a few more activities we walked down to see the fire trucks which I think honestly was the high light of the boys day.  At the time, there were not any other kids around so all 4 of the firemen talked too and took up a lot of time with my two.  Both boys got to hold the jaws of life and then put on the fire hats.  The hat was so heavy it almost weighted them down!

We tried to get a few pictures in an old tree (maybe Halloween card worthy....) however this is as good as I could get.  So needless to say, I am back to the drawing board.

Next, the boys stopped and color a pumpkin for a few minutes at one of the booths....

We parked right next to a beautiful lake so we stopped for a few minutes for more pictures.  I really like this one of Mom with the boys!

I have a fall festival/Halloween outing planned every weekend until mid November so we should be plenty busy.  I guess this will help with keeping us busy so I won't have much time to focus Christmas....Hmmm or maybe I should start thinking about it and planning now!

The many faces of lil' bit!

At lunch on Saturday, I was able to capture a few of the many faces Evan was making.  Can we say....complete HAM?!? But my goodness, I love him so!! :-)

Sweet Smile....

Angry Face.....

 

Sad Face (sticking his lip out!)

Silly Face- playing with the straw.

Sitting up!

Hey Mama, can you please stop taking pictures now?!?!

A month....

How could it have possibly been a month since I have updated this blog?!?!  I can't believe how fast time is flying by!  I have a least a half a dozen posts started but I never seem to finish them and hit the publish button.  Oh well....
I decided I am going to try and do one big recap...(sorry about all the pictures!).  All is well and we have been very busy with just the normal every day running of work, school and home.  This is my busy time at work so I have been working a lot at night so Ben has really had his lions share here at home.  I really, really appreciate it but it almost kills me to be away from the boys so much. 
Anyway...getting onto the recap- the first weekend of the month the boys and I went to Swainsboro.  We went to lunch and had a nice visit with DeDe and Pa.   After we left DeDe and Pa's house we went to see GaGa and stopped by and visited Aunt Ree and MeMe.  The boys LOVED going to every one's home and I had two very tired little boys that afternoon on the way home.  I have to make a mental note to start packing PJ's for trips like that....

I think nothing is sweeter in the world than a sleeping baby.   Just look at my baby boy... doesn't he look so peaceful and sweet?!?

On the way home from work one night I stopped by CVS and they were having a 90% off summer sale.  I picked up these 2 whale and dolphin water guns for the boys for .50 cent (also got a pair of knock-off crocs for $1.49!!).  I can say these water guns have sense broke and are long gone but for bath time that night it was so worth it!  The boys had a water gun fight with Ben!    Ben shielded himself with my cookie sheet and tried to spray them back with the water bottle I use on their hair in the mornings.  Needless to say EVERYTHING got soaked but it was a lot of fun to see them play around so much. :-)

 Kyle is beginning to learn how to read and he wants to read to his little brother all the time now.  Luckily Evan loves books also and will crawl right up in the chair to listen to Kyle.  I think half the time Kyle just makes up his own story to tell but it is so worth it to see these two like this.

 One night, I got home just as it was bed time.  I sat down on the floor to review papers and talk to the boys.  Well somehow I got ambushed!  The boys thought I was some how part of their wrestling match they usually have with Ben.  Oh no, not this Mama!  However, I was able to get a great picture of us while we were playing. :-)

 Two weekends ago, we attempted to go get Evan's 2 year pictures....without going into all of the horrible details of how my 2 year old decided he did not want his picture taken, I will just say they were a complete flop!  Yes it is a flop when the best picture you get out of the day is the 5 year standing behind a cut out in Old Navy....

Evan is starting to think he is too big to be rocked at night.  Instead he wants to drink his milk and lay with Kyle.  Where is my baby going?!? 

This brings me to last weekend....On Saturday, GaGa, the boys and I met Meme at Hobby Lobby and shopped around a little. I can't believe they have the Christmas stuff out already! 

Then on Sunday we went to Stephen and Matthew's 4th birthday party! I have lots of pictures from their party so I will be sure to post separately.

The next couple months are VERY busy for me at work, but I will do my best to do a better job of getting everything updated.  There are A LOT of fall festivals coming up and we can't wait! :-)